Excursion Reservations Pre-Pay?

So I know this was discussed at some point but does anyone have official info on above? I just logged in to my cruise for December and, although its super early, some of the excursions are available for booking but you must pay, you cannot reserve. I have been on this same cruise for past 2 years and this is first time I have ever been asked to pre-pay?? Am wondering if it will switch over at some point given not all excursions are loaded etc. Otherwise this is a complete bummer if this is new policy...

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It is now pre-pay for excursions. If you have OBC in your booking that can be used to pre-pay.

Try clicking through until you get to the pay section and see if it gives you the option for OBC.

If you end up reserving without using the OBC, just cancel. Cancelling is easy.

This is the new policy. You have to prepay. If you have OBC that shows in your personalizer when you click pay now there is a button you can click that allows you to apply that OBC to the excursions. I just did this with our October 2017 Classic Canada cruise. Our excursions were more than our OBC so I had to give my credit card to pay the difference and then it moved the excursions out of my cart and down into "Confirmed excursions" area. It may still show you have the OBC available but that is because at any time you can cancel that and pay fully for the excursions is what I was told. But as long as they move into the confirmed section you are confirmed for that tour.

My October transatlantic cruise does not require pre-payment to reserve tours. One post said Princess told them that pre-payment begins this Fall. However exactly when it'll be required depends upon the ship's itinerary & for the Royal pre-payment begins at the end of our TA cruise.

Did you go to the payment step? There are many posts saying that's when the option to pay using OBC is available. If added to your cart without paying you have 24 hours to make payment & posts say you'd also receive an email reminder to pay or have the reservation cancelled.

Our Sept 2017 British isles cruise on the CB does not require prepayment for shore excursion reservations.

I received a notification from Princess that, beginning with fall 2017 cruises, shore excursions would have to be prepaid to be confirmed. My friends and I have already booked and paid for our excursions coming up the end of September, and I did use my obc.

We had to pre-pay for our excursions for an October 2017 Hawaii/Tahiti cruise. Not happy about that. What made it ever worse was that when using onboard credits to pay, only the credits in my wife's name could be used to pay for her excursions and only the credits in my name could be used for my excursions. Since my wife doesn't get the military benefit credits or the shareholder benefit credits, my credit card was charged for the difference between the cost of her excursions and the amount of onboard credits in her name.

There can only be one explanation for this new policy----to give Princess more time to use your money for their profit. This will backfire on them in my case as we will be taking one less cruise on Princess each year in the future as well as booking independent excursions when we do cruise.

We had to pre-pay for our excursions for an October 2017 Hawaii/Tahiti cruise. Not happy about that. What made it ever worse was that when using onboard credits to pay, only the credits in my wife's name could be used to pay for her excursions and only the credits in my name could be used for my excursions. Since my wife doesn't get the military benefit credits or the shareholder benefit credits, my credit card was charged for the difference between the cost of her excursions and the amount of onboard credits in her name.

There can only be one explanation for this new policy----to give Princess more time to use your money for their profit. This will backfire on them in my case as we will be taking one less cruise on Princess each year in the future as well as booking independent excursions when we do cruise.

This is a limitation of the online system. However the telephone representatives can change the excursions to charge the other account. I have a similar situation - I have the shareholder and veterans and she doesn't, but we booked the same excursions. I booked the excursions online but did not pay. I then called Princess, and the Princess representative moved some of DW's excursions to my account. I then paid online by credit card the difference after all of our OBC was applied. It requires a telephone call to Princess to handle this, but their representatives are used to it by now.

The problem that I did have was that I could not use my shareholder or loyalty OBC to reserve excursions. The shareholder OBC is not available until I send them documentation within 90 days of sailing, and I was booking excursions much earlier than that. The loyalty OBC is not available until onboard.

NavyVeteran...thanks for providing a workaround to better spread out OBCs to pay for tours.

Like you our shareholder isn't available until about final payment & the Loyalty not until boarding the ship. I'm unaware of how difficult it'd be to have their system allow us to use those credits to "pay" but able to cancel payment of anyone who no longer owns the required number of shares.

I don't know if that would be a common problem however I have read enough posts to know that some passengers will abuse the system. :(

NavyVeteran...thanks for providing a workaround to better spread out OBCs to pay for tours.

 

Like you our shareholder isn't available until about final payment & the Loyalty not until boarding the ship. I'm unaware of how difficult it'd be to have their system allow us to use those credits to "pay" but able to cancel payment of anyone who no longer owns the required number of shares.

 

I don't know if that would be a common problem however I have read enough posts to know that some passengers will abuse the system. :(

It would actually not be difficult to give tentative credit for shareholder OBC - if Princess decided to do so. They do not actually use the OBC to pay for the excursions until you are onboard - they just use it to determine the amount you need to pay in advance. If they gave tentative credit for shareholder OBC to people who had it on their last cruise (for purpose of determining the amount of prepayment), they would still charge you onboard if the OBC did not go through by then.

This is an issue for me on my currently booked two cruises that require prepayment. I booked both of them under Sip & Sail, so I won't have any drink purchases to pay. I prepaid gratuities before the amount was increased, so I won't have that to pay. DW has already bought nearly everything she wants from the jewelry store (and she doesn't care much for the current selection), so I probably won't have that to pay. That leaves shore excursions as my only use for OBC. If I book in advance using up my veteran and FCD OBC and paying the rest by credit card, it isn't actually charged against those specific OBCs - it is charged to my onboard folio after my shareholder OBC is posted. Since the veteran OBC and shareholder OBC are the same amount, the pre-reserved excursions will be charged onboard against the nonrefundable FCD and shareholder OBC, and I can receive a refund for the refundable veteran OBC. The only thing left to spend is the loyalty OBC, but I don't get very much of that yet.

Since they do not actually charge the excursion against the OBC until we are onboard, I'm not that concerned about the inability to use shareholder OBC.

Thanks NavyVeteran for the great explanation & agree with your assessment of the system.

My August cruise is not requiring pre-payment.

My September cruise is and I was able to use part of my OBC for tours. Unfortunately, not all of my OBC that I will eventually get is available to use now.

Many of us are NOT happy with this new policy. :mad:

I think they really have to find a way to allow us to anticipate the Shareholder's Credit and also the Loyalty Credit. That Loyalty credit starts out small, but now for us, it is enough for each of us to have another "free" shore excursion or an excursion and a half. We each get the Loyalty Credit as we have different last names. And, we do appreciate that Princess does give us the Loyalty Credit, and allows us to stack all the OBC we have.

At least we can use the OBC to pre-pay the excursions.

Also, our October Diamond Princess cruises in Japan do not require pre-payment, thank goodness, although we have pretty much OBC on those. It would still be quite a lot of up front payments in addition to the OBC. But, everything after that is requiring prepayment.

Just my personal experience, we have an Alaskan cruise tour next month -- our land tour excursions require prepayment, those occurring during the cruise segment do not. Frustrating!

So...stupid question here. I have no OBC, and don't want to pay for excursions 10 months from now (my cruise partner got an email saying excursions are now available for our cruise, but I didn't - separate issue....growl) because of mobility issues. Would it work if I gifted myself enough OBC to pay for the excursions, and booked them, with an option to cancel once I'm onboard? Just trying to figure out a scenario that would safeguard me if I find that in 10 months I can't do the excursions.

Just my personal experience, we have an Alaskan cruise tour next month -- our land tour excursions require prepayment, those occurring during the cruise segment do not. Frustrating!

As far as I can remember, they have required prepayment for cruise tour land excursions. Unlike a cruise, you do not have a folio for the cruise tour, so they do not have a way to charge you at the completion of the tour.

So...stupid question here. I have no OBC, and don't want to pay for excursions 10 months from now (my cruise partner got an email saying excursions are now available for our cruise, but I didn't - separate issue....growl) because of mobility issues. Would it work if I gifted myself enough OBC to pay for the excursions, and booked them, with an option to cancel once I'm onboard? Just trying to figure out a scenario that would safeguard me if I find that in 10 months I can't do the excursions.

Gifting yourself OBC may not work, and you don't need to do that anyway. The cancellation policy has not changed. Except for excursions involving flights, hotels, and private cars, they are refundable onboard until the cancellation deadline (the same as before). If you cancel five days or more before the cruise, the refund goes back to the credit card that purchased it. If you cancel less than five days before the cruise or onboard, the refund goes to the folio of the passenger who was booked on the excursion - not the person who paid for it. Since this OBC is money you paid - not a promotion from Princess, it is refundable OBC. If you don't spend it on something else, you will get a refund after the cruise.

For what it's worth - if we keep paying for the excursions (x) months in advance so Princess can use our money interest free, what incentive does Princess have to discontinue the practice?! Maybe we should all wait until we get onboard to make our tour plans!

For what it's worth - if we keep paying for the excursions (x) months in advance so Princess can use our money interest free, what incentive does Princess have to discontinue the practice?! Maybe we should all wait until we get onboard to make our tour plans!

Exactly! (y)

I'm no fan of this new policy, but I don't get why some are moaning that they can't use Shareholder OBC's and a few others that don't get posted until they board.

Can't you just use them for tips, or is the total so large that one still has a lot of dollars left over? And if one does, I guess I'd roll the dice a bit and just reserve after I board.

Just curious.

This thread has been confusing. Some of the comments seem to contradict the excursion booking I just made a few minutes ago. We're on Grand in June, with a stop in Victoria, BC. I just booked a tour to Butchart Gardens for my wife and I and it allowed me to make a reservation, with the OPTION of paying for it in advance. If I chose not to pay it now, they make it clear that the reservation will be applied to my on board account at the end of the cruise. Since we have over $900 in OBC, this is what I am choosing to do.

This thread has been confusing. Some of the comments seem to contradict the excursion booking I just made a few minutes ago. We're on Grand in June, with a stop in Victoria, BC. I just booked a tour to Butchart Gardens for my wife and I and it allowed me to make a reservation, with the OPTION of paying for it in advance. If I chose not to pay it now, they make it clear that the reservation will be applied to my on board account at the end of the cruise. Since we have over $900 in OBC, this is what I am choosing to do.

As has been discussed, the tour reservation system will change sometime this Fall when payment by credit card or OBC will be required to confirm a tour reservation.

My October TA has the same statement you posted but after the ship arrives in FL that's when pre-payment is required. Like my cruise, your June cruise is before the change is implemented.

As has been discussed, the tour reservation system will change sometime this Fall when payment by credit card or OBC will be required to confirm a tour reservation.

 

My October TA has the same statement you posted but after the ship arrives in FL that's when pre-payment is required. Like my cruise, your June cruise is before the change is implemented.

Well, then add this tidbit of info to my confusion: in late November last year I had booked another excursion for this same cruise. That one required pre-payment. There was no option to pay on board. So, one required it, and one did not. And now the policy will change again. Consistency apparently is not in Princess' master plan.

This is our first time on Princess. I am starting to wonder what I am getting myself into. ;p